We realized the following and worked quickly to build this into our strategic plan:
1. Listen to when customers opt-in and out of messaging – across every channel
2. Give customers control over marketing frequency
3. Listen not just to opt-ins and opt-outs, but to the type of messaging customers want to receive
4. Give customers the ability to manage preferences not just on the website, but wherever they interact with your brand
5. Ensure that the preference data marketers have is in a single place and is always up to date
2. EMAIL LIST LIFECYCLE
1
NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS
UNSUBSCRIBERS
• DELIVER RELEVANT
CONTENT
• OPTIMIZE FREQUENCY
• ENGAGE
• UNSUBSCRIBER ‘WIN BACK’
• UNSUBSCRIBER SURVEY
ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS AND
INACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS
1
2
3
LIFECYCLE STRATEGY
3. EMAIL LIST CURRENT STATE
2
BROOKS BROTHERS EMAIL LIST IS STATIC YOY
WE LOSE AS MANY SUBSCRIBERS AS WE GAIN
BROOKS BROTHERS EMAIL LIST SIZE:
2012 SAS Period: 913,803
2011 SAS Period: 909,583
GROWTH = +0.5%
WEEKLY
New Subscribers: 9,000
Unsubscribes*: 8,000
* Includes approx. 1,000 undeliverable emails
4. 200K EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS HAVE BECOME INACTIVE YOY
- INACTIVES DO NOT OPEN OR CLICK IN 12 MONTHS
REPERMISSIONING INACTIVES CAN REACTIVATE THEM
- UNRESPONSIVE INACTIVES WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE FILE
- ENSURES DELIVERABILITY
- PREVENTS BROOKS BROTHERS FROM BEING CLASSIFIED AS SPAMMER
UNSUBSCRIBES REACTIVATION OPPORTUNITY
3
5. OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES
1. ENSURE BROOKS BROTHERS IS NOT A SPAMMER
• Mail INACTIVES slowly—about 10,000 per day for 20 days; two step process
MESSAGE 1:
<Anyone who opens or clicks email will be added back to our ongoing mailing list>
• Message 2 sent 5 days after Message 1 to anyone who did not open/click
MESSAGE 2:
<Anyone who clicks email will be added back to our ongoing mailing list>
<All others will be removed from our mailing list>
4
Special Offer from Brooks Brothers
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from you, we’d like to offer you
Free Shipping on any purchase with code SHIP777. Would you like to customize
your email experience with Brooks Brothers?
−Click Here To Change Your Interests
−Click Here To Receive Fewer Emails from Us
We’d like to keep in touch!
Please click here to confirm you would like to continue receiving Brooks Brothers
emails. If we don’t hear back by January X, we’ll take you off our list but you can
still resubscribe at any time.
6. OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES, continued
5
2. GIVE THE CUSTOMER CLEAR CHOICES
Reduce number of spam complaints by adding “Update My Email Preference” link
UNSUBSCRIBE
LOCATION
Include copy such as “We respect your privacy, please view our privacy policy”
CONSIDER ABOVE
THE FOLD “UPDATE
MY PREFERENCES”
7. 6
3. GIVE OUR CUSTOMERS CHOICE (CURRENT STATE)
Person will now get 1-2 emails per week
Remove person from email list, send
person to Unsubscribe Survey
Send person to Email Preferences Page
OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES, continued
OPTION 1
OPTION 2
OPTION 3
8. 7
OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES, continued
4. EXPAND PREFERENCES – GIVE CUSTOMERS MORE OPTIONS
CURRENT INTERESTS:
• BROOKS BROTHERS CLOTHING &
ACCESSORIES
• FACTORY & “346” STORES
• OUR BLOG “ OF ROGUES &
GENTLEMEN”
ADDITIONAL INTERESTS*:
• SALES
• HISTORY
• STORE EVENTS
• NEW ARRIVALS
• PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS
• FORMALWEAR
• CASUALWEAR
• MEN
• WOMEN
• KIDS
• BLACK FLEECE
• APPAREL
• ACCESSORIES
• *Interests should be supported with enough content to
email at least 1-2 times per week
• This optimizes engagement and avoids the inactivity
which causes susceptibility to spam traps
10. APPENDIX – UNSUBSCRIBE SURVEY RESULTS
Period of Analysis: November 1, 2012 – December 31, 2012
Responses
I receive too many emails in general – 51%
I receive too many emails from Brooks Brothers – 31%
I don’t find the content of Brooks Brothers’ emails relevant – 11%
I’m concerned about my privacy and sharing personal information online – 4%
Other – 3%
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Editor's Notes
Email lifecycle begins with acquisition and in our best case scenario, subscribers stay active. For those that lose interest and become inactive, we need consider what we can do to prevent them from ending up as unsubscribers, or worse, bait for spam traps.
Unsubscriber “win-back” helps us learn what might keep customers from opt-ing out
Unsubscriber survey helps us learn why customers opt-out
Quick look at the health of our email file.
In the last year, our growth has been stagnant. We are losing as many email subscribers as we are gaining.
every week we lose about 7,000 people to unsubscribes (a smaller number, about 1,000, is lost to undeliverables)… for that net loss we gain slightly more, about 9,000 per week
Note: once a customer chooses an options, we lose the ability to market to them about these product categories. Indicated preferences do not always match up with a customer’s buying history or purchase affinity.